Great Falls tribune., 1887-02-12
GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE.
Mining Life on the Yukon.

man, of the experiences of two years OF
the great Yukon river. 1t will be full 0
interest to those who contemplate visi
to the mines Of that remote region. Say
Mr.. Chapman: "The party | started ou
with consisted Of eleven persons. We
went by the Dyay pass, travelling by the
same route made famous by Schwatka
The first difficulty we had to encounter
was financial one, viz: the enormous
cost of packing food and necessary ma
terial to the gold diggings. The indians
for this service charge as much as the first
cost of the articles. The region Travelled
is wild and rugged and the divide presents
magnificent scenic effects in precipitous
chasms and snow-clad peaks. The first
stream we struck was the Salmon river,
not more than two feet wide but gradually
increasing in volume as itlnearsd the great
Yukon. At its junction with that river
we made our first dlggings. Here our lit
tie party broke up, the majority going
ahead to prospect the Stewart river, an
other tributary of the Yukon. More than
sufficient gold to pay expenses was taken
out of Salmon river-in fact we never
made prospect that did not show enough
to pay expenses during the time we were
in the country. At every sand bar down
the Salmon river wessgots' good prospects,
and these had been worked the year be-
fore by other parties. [ spent my first
summer working on the Salmon bars;
thence | went to the mouth of the Stewart.
The second summer I worked on the
Stewart river. Men working at the mouth
of the Stewart averaged from seven dollars
to nine dollars per day. Here great trouble
was experienced in trying to save fine
flour gold, as it is called. If some means
can be invented to save it, there are for
tunes in it. / experimental three months
in trying to devise means to save this flour
gold, and succeeded, in measure. When
we had to shut down for the season, the
diggings were paying fiftyeollars per day
to the man. Notwithstanding the rigor
ously cold winters, and the widespread
reports that the season is too short to make
enough to pay expenses, it lasts fully six
months and the poorest diggings struck
would do more than that, and as to the
climate, would rather winter there than
tense, averaging forty degrees below zero
during the winter months, and getting
down as low as seventy and eighty de
grees below zero occasionally. But when
the cold is so great there is perfectly
dead calm-as calm as it is in your room
and at night the stars are SO clear that they |
seem to hang from the sky. The absence
of wind during the winter readily accounts
for ournot suffering much from the cold |
We found plenty of game while we were
there, along and in the neighborhood of |
the river, but it is becoming scarcer each |
season, and it is generally best to be in |
dependent Of the resources Of the country
in that particular. I havn't any doubt that
richer diggings are yet to be found in that !
region. The part of it we travelled over
did not embrace more than five hundred |
and fifty miles in all, including the feed
ers, the Salmon and Stewart rivers.
The richest diggings will undoubtedly
be found along the headwa.ers of the Yu-
kon. At the head of the Stewart river
$50 diggings were found by Messrs.
Bowel and Frazer. There are about
seventy-five men whe will winter at Fort
Nelson, near the junction of the Stewart
and Yukon. Quite settlement is here
established, consisting of several substan-
tial store buildings and the houses OF the
miners. 1t is a beautiful location and
evinces an eye for business and beauty on
the part of the locator Very little pros
pecting for quartz has been done so far;
miners cenfining their attention princi-
pally to placers. I have heard of but one
edge on the Yukon, discovered accident
lily, specimens of which asssayed $4,000
Der ton. We found gold in every stream
We prospected and from other miners
Eho have travelled over a greater extent
# territory than I have, am informed that |
,old is found over wider range in nor !
hern Alaska than in any state or territory
N the Pacific coast. There is no doubt
hat we have in Alaska the largest quartz t
edge that was ever found, and recent in !